The West Wing - Twenty Five

[observer9670]

John Goodman was a big fan of TWW and did this episode and the three episodes in the following season for scale. He requested not to have screen credit on the first two episodes of season 5. Goodman is a native of Missouri and in deference to him, John Wells made his character from Missouri in the first episode of the following season.

[ers586]

For those watching this scene who are unfamiliar with the episode, the President's daughter had been kidnapped by terrorist. This Democratic President did not want to be in a position where he would have to choose between what was best for his daughter or what was best for the country. Because the post of Vice President was vacant due to a resignation, the next person in line--the Speaker of the House--was a Republican.

[WARP10CK]

John Goodman a Republican I like :)

Too bad reality is not like this series.

[ohlsen1973]

I can only guess what would happen, if this happened for real. One thing I know is that all branches of the armed forces would go to Defcon 2, if not Defcon 1 and all government agencies would be placed on Alert status "Severe"

[tvdeskscreen]

wow imagine that, a US where Martin Sheen is replaced by John Goodman. If only our country was like that...

[msr91331]

The departments of Health and Human Services and that of Education are seperate departments with seperate secratries. They got this wrong.

[histre101]

@msr91331 ah, no......... HHS and Education are part of the president's cabinet

[ajaxthesquishy]

@msr91331 I read somewhere that the West Wing operates on a totally fictional timeline beginning around the mid 1970s. So it's possible that Carter was never president and thus the Dept. of Education was never founded.

[histre101]

@ajaxthesquishy nice try, sorry you are so wrong...

[misterb24]

@NaturalEnquirer I would hope the Secretary of Agriculture gets a vote due to the fact that his department employs over 100,000 americans and has an annual budget in excess of 130 billion US dollars.

[DamiettadCarnivalle]

A-Hem....I prefer to think of him as the befuddled and beloved King Ralph!

[crimdell]

"Leo would know what to do."

[PHANTOM1OF1OPERA]

freddd flintstoneeeeeeeeee yababbadabadoooooo

[NaturalEnquirer]

Secretary of Agriculture gets a vote? Seriously? Agriculture?

[3L24]

@NaturalEnquirer its a cabanit post so yes the presadent can take a vote from each of his cabanit ministers

[WARP10CK]

My favourite adminstration ever and it's not even real

[cards0486]

My favorite line is in the Situation Room, and John Goodman says "If Zoe Barlet winds up dead, we're going to bomb the hell out of somebody." It showed total unity in command and high positions in Barlet's administration. Loved this show!!

[TheEndBreak]

You know President Bartlet was through taking shit when he decided to put Walter fucking Sobchak in the White House. Those kidnappers have just entered a world of pain.

[TheEndBreak]

I think we all knew President Bartlet was through taking shit from the kidnappers when he decided to put Walter fucking Sobchak in the White House.

[jack1y42]

you bet your agricultural ass Leo would know what to do!!!!!



[fluffybunny937]

I'm expecting him to yell "MARK IT ZERO!!"

[nascarkraz]

Maybe some of you guys knew but for those who did not. While the scene that follows,

(the oval office scene) was being set up, Sorkin called everyone into the rosevelt room to tell them all that he was forced to leave the show. If you watch the next scene you can see a difference in energy from the cast. It was perfectly timed since Bartlet turned over power to Goodman's character. But they delayed filming the final scene for a while so the cast and crew could disect what just happened.

[DonaldMele]

they sure know how to add power to a scene in the west wing.. excellent directors!

[hanscombe72]

Leo would know what to do - No wonder he died of a heart attack!!!!

[tobiojo10]

@hanscombe72 hahahahah that is so true. jesus don't ask much of the guy.....just settle a dispute between the acting president and the elected president, as well as keeping running the country. easy job

[doggie101171]

Why did he hand over power?

[dedade8]

@doggie101171 His daughter had been kidnapped and he didn't feel he was emotionally and mentally stable enough to hold the office

[LizzieDSSG]

John Goodman did an amazing job in this role! He was soooo not Dan Conner. I can't believe he wasn't credited on screen.

[jiveturkey25]

It's a good thing John Goodman recently lose 100 pounds this month!

[MartinSheenIsCool]

I love this show.

[crimdell]

"Leo will know what to do."

[thatdrattedcat]

Sorkin really left them a corker with the season 4 finale, didn't he?

I wonder if the writers were making some kind of self-referential point about an outsider taking control of operations... nah, probably not.

[deafdogsdontbark]

wow! you hit it on the head! The politics behind the politics!!

[Craigipedia]

I don't remember this, why was he giving away the Presidency

[doubleg137]

His daughter Zoey had been kidnapped.

[histre101]

and he was not able to make clear decisions required by the office.

[doubleg137]

very true.. thanks for the addition.

[khetab420hasam]

Can someone tell me what season and episode of this show had to do with federalism? plz?

[airdriver]

You should post Speaker Walken's swearing in. He gave a very brief history on why WWI started that was brilliant.

[jimbopumbapigsticks]

After this it went shit. In the old days if a character didn't work (eg. Kate Harper) they'd get sent off to Mandyville and never return.

[kkjimbo]

I am a huge fan of the West Wing I own the box set and watch it all the time. Thefirst time I saw the 5th & 6th seasons I did not really enjoy them. Second time around I think they are possibly the best. The reason is I hated the fact that you could see the end coming and I did not want the show to finish. Once I got past that I really appreciated how good the last two seasons were. But as I have said elsewhere the worst epsiode of TWW was still better than 95% of anything else on TV

[tmoore4075]

I love the 6th season. I love all the primary stuff. 5th season is just ok to me. The last few episodes of season 5 are great though imo.

[vp1981ad]

Quick question - why does the speaker of the house become the acting president? Shouldn't the vice president assume that position?

[Surax]

Because VP Hoynes had stepped down a few episodes before and had yet to be replaced. At the time, there was no VP. So the Speaker became acting president.

[Stonymypony]

Why does he want to hand over power. I know is daughter was kidnapped but what does handing over the presidency do?

[SaveTheMockingbirds]

Because of his mental state, he's in no position to take control right now.

[mikeangle]

man west wing went shit after this season. sorkin was the best writer around.

[Biscuitchris7again]

it didn't go to shit, it just stepped down...I first watched this show in the last season just recently...I thought it was awesome, so I looked it up and I saw that the popular word was the first 3 seasons were far superior to the latter, yet I thought the latter seasons, the only shows that I had seen, were pretty damn good...I'm now almost caught up to where I began.

[estiew2002]

I agree. john wells might have done great things with ER, but he failed with west wing. After Sorkin they kept bringing new people, but we watched for the old ones, the original cast. Sorkin dialog was witty and funny, after season 4 it was very just blaaa...

[GirlwithSwordandBow]

It just great how everybody is so sure that Leo will know what to do, that's trust

[jimmyb227]

God, I miss this wonderful show!

[hsalter1]

Thank the Lord 43 never signed the 25th...can you say President Cheney? OMG!

[muu245]

he was "president" on twice while Bush been operated on.

[CPGallagher89]

It was noted that all birds refused to sing during those periods.

[doubleg137]

you mean cheney wasn't president? I couldn't tell.

[busheytube]

How does one stand squarely behind someone AND stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them at the same time?

[mikesendker]

Shut up. When Jed Bartlet speaks you don't question. ;)

[belltownboy2012]

YEAH!

[KateLouise]

You just have to get very very uncomfortably close to them ;)

[cnor1102]

maybe its a hug type situation, or like a huddle.

[mike6436]

I hate his dog, lol. All of you West Wing fans know what I'm talking about.

[Elcristoph]

GET DOWN BASS

[TrainingThespian]

I love this scene. Only because of the music, and then the cuts back to Walken (without seeing him until the end of the montage, which was awesome!) and the agents walking.

[hollywoodwerewolf]

He's not only the most powerful Republican in the country he's also the largest.

[RJY4356]

At 2:18 there is an error where the writers didn't do their homework-- there hasn't been a Secretary of Health AND Education since the 1970s! Actually it was Health, Education and Welfare. Now there is a Secy of Education and a Secy of Health and Human Services.

[An0nym0usMaN]

Except, it would be so funny to have Roseanne as first lady.

[jiveturkey25]

@An0nym0usMaN If you say so.

[IrishEyes1989]

@An0nym0usMaN I know, right?! Whenever I see John Goodman in any role now, all I can think of is Roseanne lol.

[Cirvantes123]

@An0nym0usMaN LOL!

[PeterFormaini]

@An0nym0usMaN Um - to be First Lady, doesn;t one have to be a 'lady' beforehand?

Not to mention a homo sapien?

[jokr8790]

That's why the only answer is to overthrow the government and start with a system whose primary goal is to meet the needs of all its people, not just the wealthy.

[ermineermine]

There you go again--being INTELLECTUALLY DISHONEST and HYPOCRITICAL.

REPEAT QUESTION:

How much of what you earn do you regularly give to those who do not even earn half as much?

Or does your -ism apply only to those who have more than you do? Don't be surprised that they, in fact, have more than you do--the INTELLECTUAL MEDIOCRITY you have displayed in more than a dozen video clips' comments section means simply that NOBODY THINKS THAT YOU ARE WORTH MORE.

. . .

[ermineermine]

You just want a bigger piece of the pie for yourself, you just want to DOMINATE THE PIG TROUGH.

[jokr8790]

The better question is how much of what I earn goes to support corporate welfare bums? 12.5 billion dollars a month. The US could have secured social security probably into the nextr century for what it's costing us. We could have certainly provided universal healthcare at no individual costs. Try real argument instead of calling names. I might be more impressed. Frankly, you're beginning to bore me.

[ermineermine]

There you go again--diverting the discussion into LESS UNFLATTERING directions.

ANSWER THE QUESTION: How much of what you actually earn do you regularly give up for those who do not earn even half as much?

Or are you only keen on taking from those who have more than you do, unwilling to give what you have to those who have less--how is that distinguishable from envy and simply WANTING TO DOMINATE THE PIG TROUGH.

. . .

[ermineermine]

Temper your arrogance: I do not hesitate in informing you that you have earned my CONTEMPT from the very first day I ran across the first of hundreds of INTELLECTUALLY-DISHONEST 'arguments' you peddle across dozens of video clips.

[jokr8790]

You're getting hysterical and it's still an ad hominem attack. You're correct, I misspelled the word,it was late and I was tired. It's still an ad hominem attacks to call someone intellectually dishonest and stupid, or don't you know that? In any case, I'm tired of going "round and round and round." However, I do have to agree with one thing, the powerbrokers have put real nothings into office. Corrupt sleazes on the Republican side and conservative lites on the Democratic side.

[ermineermine]

Wrong again.

Your conduct in every debate you have triggered in every video clip has, in fact, been INTELLECTUALLY DISHONEST--you conveniently omit relevant facts which discredit your argument, treating everyone else as too stupid to know that they expose the holes in your argument.

An indicator of your INTEGRITY as well as the CREDIBILITY.

You are, in fact, as CORRUPT and SLEAZY as the ones you demonise.

[jokr8790]

Hey people. let's try to keep it a little civil. O.K. Frankly I would be more concerned by the possibility, that Rove, Cheney or some of their people used Papa Shrubbelgruber's back channels to contact Osama Ben Ladin to pull of 9/11 so sonny Shrubblegruber could have a white horse to ride in on, wave the American flag and pull off The Enabling Act and the war in Iraq.

[ermineermine]

'Civil', yes. 'Sane' too, yes please.

All those scenarios you conjure and peddle make people suspect SENILITY, if not BORDERLINE-INSANITY.

If you make as little sense when talking before a jury as you do when you type here, then Heaven rescue the defendant.

[jokr8790]

Ah yes, The typical conservative response. If unable to refute then make an ad hominum attack. Please remember that Gore was from Tennessee, the same state where a white candidate won against a black candidate by using a TV ad implying he was dating white women. Reagan got elected by using the same sleazy tactics that Rove and Cheney used to put Howdy Doody into the White House. 9/11 was a god-send to Shrubblegruber. If it hadn't happened he might have had to invent it, so he did.

[ermineermine]

1 'ad hominem'--you're a lawyer, you should know Latin more

2 Excuses, and more excuses--excuses for defeat, excuses for failing to persuade the American voters that they are more trustworthy (or less undeserving), anything to keep oneself from acknowledging the existence of holes in one's argument and deny the need to plug them.

PS: You have got to be outright stupid if you seriously believe that pointing out INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY on your part falls under ad hominem attacks.

[Sonnabend00]

jokr8790 : and Bill Clinton was a paragon of virtue.

Grow the fuck UP, will you?

[jokr8790]

Excuse me little boy. You've come up with 1 President, whose Presidency was a paradise compared to any Republican Presidency. He did not get us into an endless war by lying about it with no end in sight. Nor did he completely eviscerate the Constitution. Reagan created the conditions for 9/11 and created millions of addicts. I could go on but I'm limited to 500 characters.

[ermineermine]

Excuse me, Senile Old Man.

I

Yes, WJ Clinton's 8yrs was better on both the domestic and foreign fronts than the four before and the eight after.

II

Which does not change the fact that

1 the American people saw that Kerry was an even more alarming alternative in 2004 than the exasperatingly-incompetent incumbet

2 Gore was so uninspiring in 2000 that his and his father's home state would not even support him

3 Reagan got elected precisely because Carter was a disaster

. . .

[ermineermine]

4 Mondale and Dukakis, as well as Dole and Bush Sr, are in the same level as Gore and Kerry

5 the American people have elected more Republican Presidents than Democrats during the past several decades, and seeing actual performance of the latter since FDR decided to deny each one a second term except WJ Clinton.

. . .

[ermineermine]

Why can't you be man enough to acknowledge and live with FACTS which are unflattering to your cause?

Why do you so readily toss your CREDIBILITY out the window by engaging in INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY--pretending to be ignorant of co-existing facts which discredit your argument? Why can't you be mature enough to subsequently modify your conclusions?

Why do you treat debate opponents on every video clip as too stupid to detect the STUPIDITY AND INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY you habitually display?

[ermineermine]

(ERRATUM: 'incumbent')

[jokr8790]

In answer to Firefly 241, because it has been demonstrated since the time of Richard M. Nixon that no Republican in any position of power can be trusted to do the right thing.

[Lokisdottir]

Hey, I'm a flaming liberal but I think George the First wasn't so bad. (But then again George the Second is making every recent president aside from Nixon and Reagan smell like roses.)

[jokr8790]

While George I was in the CIA and Ronny Raygun was President, he helped engineer the creation of the Mujhadeen which became Al Quada. They helped finance their operations by selling heroin in the U.S.up to 60% of the American supply at one point. So if you know somebody's kid who died of an OD, thank them.

[theyak47]

Oops, when Ronny was President, George 1 was vice President and no longer in the CIA. I suggest you go see Charlie Wilson's War.

[jokr8790]

Doesn't matter. He still had the connections and still had the moves. There's also credible evidence that Raygun's people were secretly in touch with the Iran government and made a deal for the hostages not to be freed until after Raygun was inaugurated. Isn't there a word for that. Oh yeah, treason against the United States.

[theyak47]

You forgot to mention the $2 billion in Iranian assets frozen in banks that were released upon release of the hostages. That in my opinion is the most damning part that was rarely mentioned, that we paid ransom for their release. As for the drug running, this was in addition to the cocaine smuggled through panama with Noriega's assistance, which required the invasion of panama to keep him quiet / discredited durng Bush 1's term in office.

[jokr8790]

Yeah-that was so consistent with the official American position of not negotiating with "terrorists."

[theyak47]

Ben, I made a factual statement that during the Reagan presidency, Bush 1 was no longer IN the CIA. nowhere did I state that there were no connections. Of course the Administration has connections. So before we resort to name calling, I suggest you reread comments with a cooler head, and better comprehension.

[benprusak]

I was replying to your addleminded assumption that Bush no had connections to the CIA. You, sir, are a moron. Please kill yourself to make room for others more deserving to live. Thank you and die already.

[theyak47]

Ben, please provide the quote to back up your claim that I assumed that Bush 1 had no CIA connections. There isn't one. So go back to your remedial reading class and beg for additional tutoring. And since you subtract from the overall knowledge of any room you occupy, I will follow your lead on self-removal.

[zinzanzut]

I see you like Nick Drake , Miles Davis, one flew over...ect Your a filmaker, you warm to ethics and suchlike...impressive..so why then do i feel your write up is full of crap ? maybe its because your wish death on somebody who disagrees with your point of view. I live 2 miles from Nick Drakes grave..Guess what knowing what i know about Nick Drake...he wouldnt have liked you very much.

[firefly241]

Why do the creators of this show think it is so surprising that Republicans would do the right thing during this crisis.

[ww5591]

I love the West Wing, and this should have been one of its most powerful scenes -- except for the ridiculous mistake of referring to a Secretary of Health and Education. There is no such thing. It's Health and Human Services -- has been since 1979. Fact checking, people, fact checking!

[abermude]

Except the West Wing didn't reflect history after Nixon's resignation. For example, elections in WW where held in 2002 and 2006 (and referred to in the show as being in those years).

[janedev]

great video love that episode thanks. Does anyone have video where Josh does the briefing when Cj has toothache-very funny episode.

[filegirl]

This episode is so much more loaded because it was Sorkin's last show. Thanks for posting.

[capierno]

THANK YOU FOR UPLOADING!!

[capierno]

beh!! where's the rest?!?

[JessCausey]

Excuse you!

[nonigs007]

What!? What's wrong with Charlie? He's one fly ass nigga.